Assurance: PM orders against any PIA layoffs

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday to ensure no employee of the national airlines was laid off. The orders came during a briefing by the finance minister on a recent ordinance, which converted the state-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) into a limited company. According to a PM House statement, Dar told the premier about the salient features of the new PIA company law partnership, which includes job protection of all employees of PIA. The law would also insulate the PIA from bureaucratic control and help it run as an autonomous corporate model like the Oil and Gas Development Company. About the latest mini-budget, the finance minister said out of the Rs40 billion proposed revenue to be generated through regulatory duty on luxury items, Rs27 billion would be allocated to the provinces.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th,  2015.